Monthly Archives: July 2022

ALBANY On August 19th, Grampfather will be releasing their latest record, 666G. A record full of bombast, chaos, and an underpinning of guitar virtuosity at its core, it has some great stuff to offer in its short length. Blending elements of punk rock, indie, and alternative, Grampfather has crafted another interesting collection of songs to add to its arsenal.

Starting off with Pawl Mawl Menthawls, the album immediately begins on all cylinders with a full band instrumentation intro. The drums play well off the songs bass and guitar parts. As is common practice throughout this record, the vocal melody follows the guitar part. After the first stanza, theres a brief but tasteful guitar interlude, and midway through, the intro is repeated with added instrumentation. Overall, the song is fairly straight ahead and blends indie rock and punk aesthetics.

Following this song is The Man in the Wall, track two. While not sure how the song was recorded, to this listener, it has a definite live feel to it. The entire piece is extremely in your face with reckless abandon. There are points that feel it could use a bit of a tightening up, but doing so might lose the overall feel of the tune. There are nice dynamic changes halfway, through, that serve the song well, and a ton of punk rock elements in this song.

Track three, To My Rotting Body and Brain, is a really nice touch; the intro is full of polyrhythms. The chorus pattern seems to mimic the intro instrumental section. I really enjoyed the chord progression in this song because the extensions used in the chords follow the melody. At the end, a sudden, and shredding guitar solo appears seemingly out of nowhere, played with such a level of finesse. Impressive, to say the least.

Far and away the longest song on the record, clocking in at eight-minutes-and-ten-seconds, Hot Dog Beach, track four, steers into more of an indie-alternative vibe, and is more straightforward than the previous two. The reverb-washed guitars are a nice touch to this track and remind me of some music I really enjoyed in the early 2000s. The repetitive nature of the guitar part during its interludes allows listeners to grab on to something comfortable and instantly familiar. Perhaps showing my bias as a guitarist, I would feel remiss if I didnt mention the guitars tone: during the solo it is wonderfully throaty and right smack-dab in that overdriven, mid-range sweet spot. As we approach the last minute of the track, the tempo is severely slowed down and the band plays in an almost rubato fashion before speeding up for the final portion, as a guitar solo helps to conclude the piece.

The final two songs, The Singularity (Crossing Over0, and 666G, tracks five and six, respectively, offer more of the same in some regards, while introducing new elements in other aspects. For instance, in the former tune, the piece begins with electric piano, something not yet done on the album. Possibly the most space-y sounding of the album; every instrument seems to be loosely playing off each other. About halfway through, the listeners are exposed to a sharp transition in meter and feel. Theres very stripped back instrumentation at the end, before the track ends. With 666G, the closer and title track of the record, theres plenty of nice and clean guitar tones throughout the intro. More to that point, the guitar in this track really shines, as some of the best playing on the entire record. On an album thats largely focused on guitar proficiency, this is a great closer in that regard.

666G manages to deliver a lot of material and musical ideas in a somewhat short amount of time. The only two comments that might go against the record although it didnt detract too much from the album, in this listeners opinion are the vocals and cohesiveness of the bands performances. Sometimes it sounds like the singer might be straining, and the instrumentation will seemingly get lost in the mix during some of the more chaotic parts on the record. That being said, there are a great number of moments that a fan of alternative rock, punk, and indie can latch onto. Go and grab your copy of the new record by following the link here.

Lucas Garrett: Thank you, James, and nice to talk to you again. I hear your band has a new album coming out soon?

James Kwapisz: Yeah, were real excited about it.

LG: Tell us about the album.

JK: Its been six months since the last release. That seems to be the theme of the album: its called 666G six songs long. I feel the other album was more of a mixed bag, a smorgasbord. This one feels more concise: banger after banger. It feels more realized. Theres definitely still a range of genres, but I think it has a better flow to it.

LG: Theres a lot of different genres like you said, but they work together in ways Id not heard before. Its a very interesting way of writing the music, because Id not really heard elements of punk alongside elements of progressive rock before. They seem to be antithetical of one another, but yet it works in a really interesting way.

JK: One thing I should note: this album is more collaborative than ever. While I still maintain that role of being the main songwriter/composer, and lyricist, the other guys had a large hand in it. For example, Andrew wrote the main riff in the first song, Pawl Mawl Menthawls, and I added some parts to bridge it together so its not that one riff repeating throughout the whole song. The most collaborative is track five, The Singularity.

It actually started off as a nine-minute-long jam. The other guys really wanted to keep it like that, but the buzzing of the snare in the live recording was driving me crazy. I was doing everything I could to mute that but it wasnt really working out. With much protest, lets record this track-by-track and figure out the structure. Its one of my favorite tracks on the album because its so unique from everything weve ever done.

Like I was saying earlier before the interview, Andrew and I switched up instruments. He was playing keyboards on this one. Hes definitely a more proficient lead guitarist than I am, but I used to do all the leads on the earlier albums. It was nice to revisit it and see that I could still shred.

LG: Was this album recorded live, or piece-by-piece?

JK: Its all piece-by-piece.

LG: However, its done, you captured a live feel, which is very cool.

JK: Andrew lets loose a little bit, but the rhythm section is pretty tight: doing the same thing each take. Its nice for the live element, because Andrew is always doing something different and were keeping the same thing. Like with The Singularity, for playing it live, Id want to have a structure. The marriage of structure and improvisation is pretty interesting to me.

LG: Does this album have the same lineup?

JK: Yeah, it does. Its just me, Jake, Tony, and Andrew. Thats part of the reason why we were able to put out this album so quick after the other one. In the past, its been multiple lineups within a year. A lot of the time was spent picking a few songs from a few albums, and teaching and re-teaching the parts. Then, theyd leave the band it was always someone new. It was a stagnant limbo, for me.

Its so nice to have a steady crew. Now we can just progress and make new music. Also, we live within a mile of each other, so that convenience helps a lot.

LG: That is really convenient. Youre pretty prolific now. Whats next on board for you guys?

JK: After this album, we have a bunch of ideas percolating. We had this stupid name for an album, called, Glampfather, where its going to be super poppy and synth-y. On the cover, we had the idea where its going to be me in a white tuxedo on a piano in the woods with an RV and a disco ball. And, then Andrew will be playing piano and Ill have a rose in my mouth, hahaha. Super over the top. Glampfather is going to be the seventh album. I thought itd be funny if it were super poppy on the A-side, and then devolve to bring back some thrashier metal elements from our Magnum Grampus era. Keep people on their toes, ya know?

LG: What else would you like to talk about tonight?

JK: I appreciate your input and getting the word in the Capital Region and beyond.

LG: The album is dropping August 19th. Where can we find it?

JK: Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music Wherever Distrokid sends it!

LG: Do you have any shows coming up?

JK: Were playing Sheeptown, a DIY event in Albany on August 3rd, and an album release party at Snugs in New Paltz on August 20th. Weve been playing the new songs at shows. Its appealing to get that experience of songs that arent released yet.

LG: Thank you very much for your time tonight, James, and good luck with your release!

JK: Yeah, of course!

LG: Ill talk to you soon.

JK: Awesome, thanks for your time, I appreciate it. Good talking with you.

Read more here:

In Session: James Kwapisz of Grampfather - Nippertown

With the recent news that Xbox has reportedly submitted all the requested info to the FTC regarding the big Activision Blizzard deal, were starting to get excited about the prospect of the publishers titles hitting Xbox Game Pass. Sure, weve known for some time that Xbox is hoping to bring as many Activision Blizzard games to the library as possible, but now that the deal could be closing in the near future, its all starting to feel real.

When we first found out about the acquisition, Microsoft said that the deal should conclude some time between July 2022 and June 2023. Naturally, with a merger this size, a lot of us expected 2023 to be the more likely timeline. The fact that it could now be this year is getting us all giddy about Game Pass growth. So, with that in mind, here are five reasons were getting real excited about Activision Blizzard on Xbox Game Pass...

We recently looked at Stray compared to Blinx and why we think Xbox could invest in the latter to create a cool little platform mascot. Well, how about these two lads? Thats right, if the deal goes through Crash and Spyro would be Xbox-owned, and a bunch of their respective catalogues will be added to the Game Pass library. Given that both of these series have received remastered trilogies, that should mean well get all of their iconic entries on the service.

Then, theres the future of these franchises. Activision had seemingly shelved both of these after their revivals didnt sell gangbusters (especially Spyro, at least Crash got a new game) but now Xbox would have a hold of them, and wed expect to see new entries in both series. Wed love to see a new Spyro with all that Xbox Series X|S next-gen goodness baked in. Just use the Reignited Trilogy as a starting point, that collection was bloody gorgeous!

Look, we know, a lot of you are probably tired of Call of Duty. This writer is a huge fan and even they are feeling the burnout. But the truth of it is this - Call of Duty is still the king of console shooters. Battlefield 2042s fumbled launch and Halo Infinites lack of a proper post-launch plan have reinforced that thought. Even Vanguard, arguably the worst Call of Duty in some time, has delivered its live service much more efficiently than these two.

And with the upcoming launch of Modern Warfare 2, which will no doubt be absolutely massive alongside Warzone 2's 2022 launch, this series aint going anywhere. In fact, it's enjoyed a bit of a revival since the 2019 Modern Warfare reboot, and while its direct sequel might not hit Game Pass on day one due to contractual obligations, wed expect it to come one day, alongside an absolutely gargantuan library of first-person shooters. The Xbox 360 CoD titles hitting Game Pass alone is enough to get excited about, as some of those are up there with the best console shooters ever made!

Once upon a time, Activision used to make more than Call of Duty. Remember Guitar Hero, Prototype, Singularity? Wed hedge our bets that some of these dormant Activision franchises would have more chance at returning when the defining metric for them wont be sales. Xbox is looking to ultimately boost its Game Pass subscriber count, so not every single release has to sell 85 million copies

Guitar Hero in particular just feels right as an Xbox Game Pass addition (yes, weve already ranted about this). Sure, theres the hurdle of getting those plastic instruments into peoples homes for the full experience, but if they can figure that out, Guitar Hero on Game Pass is golden. New music packs every few months as Game Pass Ultimate perks? We can already see it!

Lets not forget, this deal includes Blizzard, who merged with Activision many moons ago. Yes, we obviously get some superb Blizzard titles on Xbox Game Pass like Overwatch, Diablo and such, but a huge number of their titles are also PC-only, mainly due to how they work with controls and the like.

Even so, there's potential for even deeper Blizzard integration with Xbox Game Pass. That could include Game Pass Ultimate perks for the likes of World of Warcraft, Hearthstone and more (maybe even add the latter to Xbox Cloud Gaming?), or possibly even a full WoW sub being included in the PC Game Pass library. That would certainly drive sub numbers, given the current cost of a World of Warcraft subscription on its own.

One huge bonus well land once Activision comes aboard, is the breadth of developer talent spread across the companys many, many studios. Sure, most of them at present are working on Call of Duty in some fashion, but Xbox could shuffle things around so that some of these teams are freed up for other projects.

We just mentioned Singularity, the underrated shooter from the now-CoD Warzone developer Raven Software. Wed love to see the shackles removed with this team in particular, so they could revisit that series or maybe, just maybe, create a new IP. Such a term has seemed alien to Activision in recent years, but the Xbox deal gives us hope that we may well see some new franchises from these Activision teams in the not-too-distant future.

What are you most excited about with Xbox and Activision Blizzard joining forces? Let us know down in the comments!

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The Exciting Prospect Of ActiBlizz On Xbox Game Pass Is Starting To Feel Real - Pure Xbox

Alarming stories from Antarctica are now more frequent than ever; the ice surface is melting, floating ice shelves are collapsing, and glaciers are flowing faster into the ocean.

Antarctica will be the largest source of future sea-level rise. Yet scientists dont know exactly how this melting will unfold as the climate warms.

Our latest research looks at how the Antarctic ice sheet advanced and retreated over the past 10,000 years. It holds stark warnings, and possibly some hope, for the future.

Future sea-level rise presents one of the most significant challenges of climate change, with economic, environmental, and societal impacts expected for coastal communities around the globe.

While it seems like a distant issue, the changes in Antarctica may soon be felt on our doorsteps, in the form of rising sea levels.

Antarctica is home to the worlds largest single mass of ice: the Antarctic ice sheet. This body of glacier ice is several kilometers thick, nestled on top of solid land. It covers entire mountain ranges beneath it.

The ice sheet flows over the land from the Antarctic interior and towards the surrounding ocean. As a whole it remains a solid mass, but its shape slowly deforms as the ice crystals move around.

While the ice sheet flows outward, snowfall from above replenishes it. This cycle is supposed to keep the system in balance, wherein balance is achieved when the ice sheet is gaining the same amount of ice as its losing to the ocean each year.

However, satellites keeping watch from above show the ice sheet is currently not in balance. Over the past 40 years, it has lost more ice than it has gained. The result has been global rising sea levels.

But these historical observations span only four decades, limiting our understanding of how the ice sheet responds to climate change over much longer periods.

We wanted to look further back in timebefore satellitesand even before the first polar explorers. For this, we needed natural archives.

We brought together various natural archives to unearth how the Antarctic ice sheet changed over the past 10,000 years or so. These included:

When we started our research, I wasnt sure what to expect. After all, this period of time was long considered fairly dull, with only small changes to the ice margin.

Nevertheless, we studied the many different natural archives one by one. The work felt like a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, full of irregular-shaped pieces and seemingly no straight edge. But once we put them together, the pieces lined up and the picture was clear.

Most striking was a period of ice loss that took place in all regions of Antarctica about 10,000 to 5,000 years ago. It resulted in many meters of sea-level rise globally.

In some regions of Antarctica, however, this ice loss was then followed by ice gain during the past 5,000 yearsand a corresponding global sea-level fallas the ice sheet margin advanced to where it is today.

Understanding how and why the Antarctic ice sheet changed in this fashion offers lessons for the future.

The first lesson is more of a warning. The period of ice loss from 10,000 to 5,000 years ago was rapid, occurring at a similar rate to the most dramatically changing parts of the Antarctic ice sheet today.

We think it was likely the result of warm ocean water melting the underside of floating ice shelvessomething that has also happened in recent decades. These ice shelves hold back the ice on land, so once theyre removed the ice on the land flows faster into the ocean.

In the future, its predicted ice loss will accelerate as the ice sheet retreats into basins below sea level. This may already be under way in some regions of Antarctica. And based on what happened in the past, the resulting ice loss could persist for centuries.

The second lesson from our work may bring some hope. Some 5,000 years ago the ice sheet margin stopped retreating in most locations, and in some regions actually started to advance. One explanation for this relates to the previous period of ice loss.

Before the ice began melting away, the Antarctic ice sheet was much heavier, and its weight pushed down into the Earths crust (which sits atop a molten interior). As the ice sheet melted and became lighter, the land beneath it would have lifted upeffectively hauling the ice out of the ocean.

Another possible explanation is climate change. At Antarcticas coastal fringe, the ocean may have temporarily switched from warmer to cooler waters around the time the ice sheet began advancing again. At the same time, more snowfall took place at the top of the ice sheet.

Our research supports the idea that the Antarctic ice sheet is poised to lose more ice and raise sea levelsparticularly if the ocean continues to warm.

It also suggests uplift of the land and increased snowfall have the potential to slow or offset ice loss. However, this effect is not certain.

The past can never be a perfect test for the future. And considering the planet is warming faster now than it was back then, we must err on the side of caution.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Image Credit: David Mark from Pixabay

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Scientists Studied the Antarctic Ice Sheet Over 10000 Years. Their Findings Hold Insight for the Future - Singularity Hub

Think this is nifty? Its a version of the weekly Under 30 newsletter, and would be even niftier in your inbox.

One of the great pleasures of editing the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for the past 4.5 years has been learning about companies with zany solutions to the worlds most pressing problems. When I review submissions, Ill brew myself a strong cup of coffee, open my computer, and often truly chuckle. Though many are ridiculous (and ineffective), the ones that make the Under 30 lists continue to delight in this time ofvery hotdarkness.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a small magazine story about some of the wackiest honorees Ive encountered: the upcyclers. These founders, all still under 30, are tackling climate change by turning trash into energy and clothing. Take ICTYOS, which collects discarded fish skins from sushi restaurants in Lyon, France, and transforms them into luxe leather that can be made into belts, jackets and purses. Another favorite: Brooklyn-based Algiknit, whose Helmut Lang-trained founder spools seaweed into yarnwith $18 million in funding.

Read the full story below. Maybe youll laugh into your caffeinated drink, too :).

DAVID CANNON / GETTY IMAGES

Golf Tournaments, A Private Jet And A Red Ferrari: A Tech CEO Lived Large While His Employees Went Unpaid

A Forbes investigation found that Chris Kirchner, of the $240 million Goldman Sachs-backed startup Slync.io, fired executives after they asked questions about the companys funds. Now, hes facing a lawsuit for wrongful termination and claims of fraudulent behavior.

ClassDojo, founded by Under 30s, is on a $125 million mission to bring kids to the metaverse. The company says software made by its 30-person team is used by 95% of U.S. schools and has a $1.25 billion valuation. Seems like they did their homework. (Forbes)

The Seattle Mariners are actually winning. Meet the woman who is working to turn the hot streak into bigger profits, starting with her Bon Jovi karaoke selection. (Forbes)

These guys built Gordian, a company that upsells airline customers on seats, baggage and boarding, by cold calling airlines. And theyve raised $33 million to bring it to cruising altitude. (Forbes)

A few weeks ago I wrote about female founders from the girlboss heyday, and the movements shadow on women entrepreneurs. This is a profile of Wing founder Audrey Gelman, who had raised $167 million for her members-only womens coworking club, and shuttered the company in the pandemic Now shes running an antique store in Brooklyns Cobble Hill neighborhood. (Vanity Fair)

Ah, continuing to define office culture sans the officeat this stage, its permanent and involves Ted Lasso Zoom dressup. (Forbes)

With $2 trillion in recent crypto losses, what is the richest NFT artist Beeple doing? A lot of thingsnone of which involve regret. (New York)

General Catalyst, backer of Under 30 heavy hitter companies like Airbnb, Cadre and Canva, launched a $670 million healthcare fund. (Forbes)

In news you can use, heres how to recognize the physical symptoms of burnout. (New York Times)

An important read to combat this news cycle: A happiness columnists three rules for happiness. (The Atlantic)

Despite a drawdown in venture capital spending, the livestream shopping platform Whatnotpopular for sports cards, rare toys and other collectibleshas raised $260 million in fresh funding. (Forbes)

Repurposing animals, vegetables and minerals with the Forbes 30 Under 30, in 30 words or less.

Calling mermaids: Tessa Callaghan is turning algae into clothing.

Tessa Callaghan, 29 Cofounder, Aligknit Callaghans Brooklyn-based business spins seaweed into yarn, which is less polluting than traditional textile production. She has raised nearly $18 million from venture capitalists and Dutch incubator Fashion for Good.

Rubn Escudero, 27; Maria Jara Perea, 23; Iigo Monreal, 24

cofounders, SmallOps

Olive oil: tasty! And convertible to biogas. These Spaniards, with patent-pending tech and $170,000 in grants (theyre pitching VCs) are opening a plant to turn discarded olive oil into fuel.

Elle Liu, 29

Cofounder, Eucalypso

Cotton sheets gave this former SoulCycle product manager night sweats and acne, so she designed skin-soothing eucalyptus- ber bedding. A queen set costs $185; 2021 revenue was $2.6 million.

By Anthony Tellez

When the invasion of Ukraine began in February, Easton LaChappelle was immediately trying to find out how he could help out casualties of the war. As the CEO of Unlimited Tomorrow, a next generation New York-based prosthetics company that uses 3D printing and scanning technology to make custom and affordable prosthetics, LaChappelle was looking for ways to get his tech on the ground in Ukraine. "I saw what was going on. There was a high number of casualties for them that were causing amputations. We started seeing these news stories about these individual people. And I think that resonates with all of us and we all want to do something about that," says LaChappelle, who made the 30 Under 30 Healthcare list in 2021.

His goal is to raise $1 million dollars through a GoFundMe campaign and provide the prosthetics to at least 100 Ukrainian citizens who have suffered injuries. In trying to achieve this milestone, LaChappelle is working with Singularity Group, a company that focuses on using emerging technologies to solve the worlds biggest social problems. With their global network and LaChappelles quick and affordable means of manufacturing bionic arms, the two companies were able to navigate the logistics of getting prosthetics to war victims in a span of about two months.

Currently, Unlimited Tomorrow is taking its streamlined process for producing prosthetics to hospitals in Ukraine. We have a scanner in a hospital in Lviv. We train the medical staff in about two minutes and how to 3D Scan. We get those scans instantly to our back end database, says LaChappelle, who relies on Singularitys network in nearby Warsaw and a network of Ukraine-based drivers to get his prosthetics delivered to those in need.

While traditional manufacturing methods for prosthetics involve making molds, requiring patients to leave their home and wait anywhere from two to six months to receive the prosthetic limb, Unlimited Tomorrow is able to deliver an individual a prosthetic in four to eight weeks. As the war rages on, LaChappelle is confident that he can continue to help those in need. It's just going to continue to take coordination, partnership and assistance from local governments, healthcare systems, partners, like Singularity Group and boots on the ground, he said.

BRYAN VAN DER BEEK/THE FORBES COLLECTION

Facebook Billionaire Eduardo Saverins B Capital Raises $250 Million For Its Early Stage VC Fund

B Capitals latest fund comes amid a slump in deals globally, with venture capital-led investments in startups around the world dropping 23% in the second quarter of 2022 compared to the previous three months, according to CB Insights.

Guerin Blask for Forbes

Still Open: Forbes Under 30 2023 Nominations

You have until September 1!

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The Company Transforming Seeweed Into Yarn And Other Upcyclers - Forbes

Everything has to end eventually but does that include the universe itself? And if so, how? And when? It might be hard to imagine a catastrophe big enough to affect the entirety of existence, but physicists do expect it all to end at some point and it may come sooner than we think. Here are some of the leading hypotheses about how the universe could end, and when.

To figure out how the cosmos could come to a close, physicists look back to the beginning. About 13.8 billion years ago, space and time burst forth from an incredibly dense singularity, an event thats come to be known as the Big Bang. The universe rapidly expanded from that point, with matter cooling and condensing into galaxies and all the stars and planets they contain.

But the universe is still expanding, and doing so at an accelerating pace, thanks to a mysterious force that scientists call dark energy. As that name suggests, we know very little about how this force works or why its pushing everything away from everything else, but it has some pretty major implications for the ultimate fate of the universe. How it plays out depends on how you tweak the numbers in the models.The Big Freeze

According to our best models of the evolution of the universe, the most likely scenario is whats called the Big Freeze. If dark energy keeps accelerating the expansion of the universe forever and calculations suggest that it will then the cosmos is in for a slow death thats drawn out for a googol years. That unfathomable number is a one followed by 100 zeroes.

If you could watch a patch of sky in fast-forward over billions of years, the stars would start to turn red, then fade out completely. Thats because the expanding universe would stretch the wavelength of their light farther and farther towards the red end of the spectrum, before rendering them completely invisible to the eye.

Of course, even if you couldnt see them, the distant stars and galaxies would still exist at least for a few trillion years. But after a while, the expansion would dilute the dust and gas floating around in space, until there isnt enough concentrated in any one region to fuel the birth of new stars. With no more being born, stars eventually become an endangered and then extinct species, as the last of them die off.

So begins the universes Degenerate Era, about 100 trillion years from now. By this point, only white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes exist, but these too will fade white dwarfs and some neutron stars will slowly cool into invisible, inert black dwarfs, while other neutron stars will collapse into black holes.

By the year 10 tredecillion (a one followed by 43 zeroes), there wont be anything but black holes left. And even these arent eternal as Stephen Hawking predicted, black holes slowly give off radiation until they eventually evaporate.

After about 1 googol years, once all the black holes are gone too, the universe settles into its final age the Dark Era. Light and matter are distant memories, and the remaining loose particles will live the loneliest possible existence, rarely having the chance to whizz within a light-year of each other, let alone interact. And nothing else will ever happen, for eternity.The Big Rip

A similar scenario leads to a far more dramatic death, much sooner. In this model, dark energy doesnt just accelerate the expansion of the universe at a steady pace, it accelerates exponentially, eventually tearing the very fabric of reality apart an ending called the Big Rip.

Theres a physical limit to the distance into space that we could ever see, even if you had the most powerful telescope possible. That limit is dictated by the speed of light at a certain point, objects are too far away for their light to have had enough time to reach Earth. This region is called the observable universe.

In the Big Rip model, the exponentially accelerating expansion pushes more and more objects beyond that boundary, meaning that the observable universe is constantly shrinking. Any two objects that are farther apart than this boundary allows can no longer influence each other through the fundamental forces, like gravity or electromagnetism.

As that distance shrinks, large scale structures of the universe will begin to crumble as gravitys influence shrinks, it wont be able to hold galaxy clusters together, and theyll start dissolving. Eventually the same will happen to the galaxies themselves, sending stars drifting off on their own. Later, the cosmic event horizon will shrink beyond the scale of an individual star system, meaning planets will no longer be bound to their orbits around stars.

In the final few minutes of existence, that event horizon would shrink smaller than the scale of molecules, disrupting the forces that hold matter together, shredding stars, planets and everything on them. And finally, those loose atoms themselves would be ripped apart particle by particle. The last victim is the fabric of spacetime itself.

The scientists who propose this model predict that, if it were to happen, the universe has about 22 billion years left to live. Thankfully though, other scientists believe that this scenario involves parameters that arent realistic, so is less likely to occur than some of the other ideas on this list.The Big Crunch

Perhaps the universe will end in the exact opposite way instead of expanding forever into nothingness, it changes course and collapses in on itself in a so-called Big Crunch.

In the cosmic tug of war between gravity trying to pull everything together and dark energy trying to push it apart, scientists usually stack their chips in favor of dark energy, which would ultimately lead to a Big Freeze or Big Rip ending. But we cant completely count gravity out of the running.

If the density of matter in the universe is high enough, its gravity could overcome the expansion and trigger a contraction phase instead. Everything will begin to move towards everything else as the universe shrinks once again. Much like our current expansion phase, anyone alive at the time wouldnt be directly affected at least until near the end.

Galaxy clusters would start to merge, then galaxies themselves, and eventually individual stars would collide more regularly. But the real trouble begins with the cosmic microwave background the background radiation of the universe left over from the Big Bang. As its photons are shifted towards the blue end of the spectrum, this radiation heats up, until eventually it becomes hotter than stars. That means the stars can no longer radiate their heat outwards, and will continue to get hotter and hotter until they evaporate.

In the last few minutes, the temperature of the universe would be so extremely hot that atoms themselves fall apart. Not that theyll have long to worry about that, since theyll be sucked into the black holes that are taking up an increasing percentage of the shrinking universe.

Eventually, the entire contents of the universe will be crushed together into an impossibly tiny space a singularity, like a reverse Big Bang.

Different scientists give different estimates of when this contraction phase might begin. It could be billions of years away yet. Or, according to a recent study, it could be quite soon, cosmically speaking, as the universe reverses course about 100 million years from now. In that model, the contraction phase would take about a billion years before we return to that singularity.The Big Bounce

But that might not be the end. A variation on the above hypothesis suggests that moments before the universe collapses into an infinitely dense singularity, its saved by quantum processes and reverses course once again, beginning a new period of expansion thats effectively another Big Bang for a brand new universe. This model is known as the Big Bounce.

While it might sound a little too convenient, proponents of the idea say that there is some precedent in the world of quantum physics after all, as the universe shrinks towards a singularity, it becomes so small that quantum rules take over from the large-scale classical physics were familiar with.

At that point, quantum tunneling can occur, where particles can overcome barriers that by all accounts they shouldnt have enough energy to pass through. This drives processes like radioactive decay and, according to a recent study, could also allow a contracting universe to escape the fate of total collapse and begin expanding again.

Intriguingly, support for the Big Bounce arises out of another theory called loop quantum gravity, which was created as a way to explain gravity in terms of quantum mechanics.

The fun implication of the Big Bounce hypothesis is that we might be in the middle of a never-ending chain of universes being created and destroyed.The Big Slurp

The final doomsday scenario on this list is perhaps the most unsettling, because it could already be barreling down on us and we wouldnt know until it hit. Its called a false vacuum decay, or more colloquially the Big Slurp.

Its a law of physics that a system will naturally try to become stable. To do so it moves from a state of high energy to one with lower energy, until it stabilizes into its lowest possible energy state. For quantum fields, this is known as its vacuum state.

Its thought that all known quantum fields are in their stable vacuum states except for one: the Higgs field. It seems to be in a false vacuum state, which means that it currently appears stable but is predicted to not be in its lowest energy state.

But that could change without warning. Literally any second, the Higgs field could suddenly slip into a lower energy state, taking out a huge chunk (if not all) of the universe in the process.

All it would take is for one tiny point in space to collapse into this lower energy state, which would send a bubble of vacuum decay expanding outwards at the speed of light. Moving that fast, we couldnt even see it coming until the wall of that bubble slammed into Earth.

What happens once were inside this bubble? No ones really sure, but it will probably rewrite the laws of nature. Theres a chance that life might be possible under these new physics but the universe could be so completely different that we cant even imagine it. Worst case scenario, all matter is destroyed.

If theres good news to be found, its that theres a lot of uncertainty to the idea. Some models predict that false vacuum decay isnt likely to occur for many billions of years yet, or that its impossible altogether. Others suggest that it should have happened by now, indicating our current universe might actually be the strange new physics inside the bubble.

The Higgs field could also be more stable than we give it credit for. It was, after all, only confirmed relatively recently with the discovery of the Higgs boson, so theres still plenty left to learn through further study.

Or maybe the false vacuum bubble has just swallowed the Sun and will be here in eight minutes.

Link:

The end of everything: 5 ways the universe could be destroyed - New Atlas